Iraqi Electricity Minister Luay al-Khateeb indicated that "at the moment, about 4 gigawatts [roughly one-third of Iraqi electricity] comes directly and indirectly from Iran... this is something that in terms of price and volumes and delivery - there is no alternative. We have explored options in neigbouring countries. There is no alternative that competes on volume or price or speed of delivery to make up for that". He added that "with regards to the import of gas or electricity, this is not going to be an issue in about four years' time... but time matters. We are not talking days, or weeks or months. We need three to four years, and we made that very clear".